Sony Meets Air Quality Targets, Cuts Emissions 31%

Electronics giant Sony announced today that since 2000, it has achieved a 31 percent reduction in global CO2 emissions. The company boasts that means it surpassed its 2006 "Green Management" goal by 24 percent, but the original goal of 7 percent was not exactly ambitious. It did also achieve, though, a 54 percent reduction in waste generation (the goal was 40 percent) and a 41 percent reduction in water use at business sites (the goal was 20 percent). The announcement comes after a third-party analysis of data from Sony's facilities worldwide confirmed that the company met or exceeded several of the targets laid out in 2006 in its Green Management 2010 plan.

There are some shortfalls: the company missed its target for volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by five percent. And the waste reduction was achieved largely by increasing recycling, rather than reducing resource consumption in the first place.

But, from Envirotech Online: "Some of Sony's most popular items such as the Bravia LCD TV have been produced to consume far less electricity, with the Blu-ray Disc recorder model seeing its power requirement fall by 50 per cent between 2008 and 2010."

Sony's next step will be to fulfill more forward-thinking targets identified in the company's 'Road to Zero' plan, announced in 2010, in which Sony pledged to be zero carbon by 2050. As part of this goal, the corporation will aim for a 30 per cent reduction in annual energy consumption, a 10 per cent reduction in product mass, a 16 per cent reduction in packaging waste and a 14 per cent reduction in transport CO2 emissions by 2015 (all compared to 2008 levels). The company has also set itself a five per cent reduction in utilisation ratio of virgin oil-based plastics in products (compared to 2008) within the next five years.

Additional goals for 2015 include reducing absolute waste generation by 50 per cent (compared to 2000) and reducing absolute water consumption by 30 per cent (compared to 2000).